Hand Games are traditional games historically played by many Native American tribes across the country. There’s a competition at the LNI for hand games passed down through South Dakota tribes-And for the second year in a row, local business are invited to play along.
Whitney Rencountre is with the Ateyapi youth mentoring program in Rapid City. He says Hand Games teach aren’t just for entertainment.
“We can utilize these games to inspire our youth and our children to reteach them the vales that we have of respect, of honesty of wisdom. Of really being a good relative and a person that is responsible and that has the integrity to do the right thing when nobody is looking. All these things are based and taught through these games.”
Rencountre says organizers were looking for a way to get the community involved a last year. He thought hand games way for business owners to participate.
“Hand games is one of the games that is, you don’t have to be physically in shape. You don’t have to have special talents or skills. It’s a fun game of chance and guess and as you learn more about it, it peeks your interest.”
Rencountre says last year, only eight people joined in the games and played alongside the children competitors. This year-18 business signed up. But, Rencountre says they’re need more practice before competing against the kids. He says there are several Ateyapi teams this year.
Katie Reddest is on one of the teams. The 16 year old says she’s been practicing all year.
“Personally, I’ve been trying to figure out body language.”
Reddest say that skill is practically helpful for one game where an opponent holds two bones. One is marked with a stripe and one is blank. The person holding the bones hides the marks in their hands then the opposing team tries to guess which bone has the stripe.
“When they hold the bones, some people like lean and the one that’s bent is usually the one that it’s in and vis-versa. And their movements-like if you sway to one side the most. Yeah.”
Organizers hope to get even more community interest in hand games next year.